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New Comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs Update

Photographer

Mike Olason

Email

moicylander@centurylink.net

Location of photo

Denver Colorado

Date/Time of photo

2 June 2017, 0913UT

Equipment

11" SCT f/6.4 and STF-8300M CCD Camera

Description

The winds were calm for this collection of images unlike the very windy night of the previous collection of images on 24 May 2017. The latest orbital data shows the comet is 1.5 Billion miles from Earth and magnitude 18.8 in this image. The comet is moving only 9"/Hour across Earth's night sky, thus there is very little star movement in this image. The comet will only brighten to about magnitude 14 over the next 5 years and then it will brighten to about magnitude 5 in June/July 2023 when it unfortunately is still 108 Million miles from Earth at it's close approach to Earth. It reaches perihelion in October 2023 when it is still expected to be about magnitude 5 in Earth's night sky. Of course, it is a comet that is still 6 years away and we know very little about it except that comets are very unpredictable.

About Mike Olason

I started imaging comets in 1994 with an ST-5 CCD Camera and an 11" SC Telescope. Since then the CCD cameras have changed (ST-7, ST-402ME and STF-8300M), but I am still using the 11" SC Telescope. Naturally I have used a lot of smaller telescopes to obtain larger fields of view. I live south of Denver at an elevation of 6150 feet which allows me to image comets down to almost magnitude 21 on a perfect night. Unfortunately ChemTrails have turned Denver cloudy and dry. I use the camera software CCDOps to process my images. All I do to each image is dark subtraction and flat field, stack images as required to show faint comets, contrast/bright adjust the final image and maybe use a median filter to reduce the image noise. The result is an image that reflects reality and will never win any picture of the day award. If you would like to use my images for a project or ask a question send me an email to "moicylander@centurylink.net".

One thought on “New Comet C/2017 K2 Panstarrs Update”

Of course, just after this image and data are submitted a new Orbital Update is issued. The new update now has the comet reaching perihelion in April 2023 and it’s close approach to Earth at the same time of about 165 Million miles with an expected magnitude still about 5. We still have 6 more years of updates and magnitude debates, enjoy.

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